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This Week

#202 – How to Build a Rabid Fan Base with Austin Rief of Morning Brew

Apr 20th — Austin Rief (@Austin_Rief) started the newsletter Morning Brew in college when he didn’t care if he made money or mistakes. That freedom in the early days resulted in an authenticity that he credits for their growth. In this episode, I talk to Austin about how he’s using Twitter to grow, what types of customers become brand ambassadors, and so much more.

Approaching Nebulous Tasks

Apr 20th — Colleen and Michele both work through making big tasks less scary.

Pursuing local journalism with Black Iowa News' Dana James

Apr 19th — Dana James is the writer of Black Iowa News, a newsletter focused on providing factual information and unique reporting for the Black community in Iowa. Here, James shares her perspective on writing and reporting news at the local level.

#201 – 3x Growth, Dating, and Hiring a Coach for Everything with Ben Orenstein of Tuple

Apr 16th — Today I’m catching up with Ben Orenstein (@r00k) after nearly two years. Since then his company Tuple has grown 3x and is hitting millions on annual revenue. In this episode, I talk to Ben about the factors behind his insane growth, what it’s like being single as a startup founder, and why he’s hiring a coach for nearly every aspect of his life.

Time management

Apr 15th — This week, we talk about some time management hacks Rick is trying now that he has a baby to take care of.

Past Month

#200 – Every Indie Hacker Has an Online Course in Them with Andrew Berry, Marie Poulin, and Ali Abdaal

Apr 13th — Today I’m talking to some of the best online course creators that I know. So many indie hackers got started and became successful because they found ways to teach others online. So I invited Andrew Berry (@Bazzaruto), who runs the On Deck Course Creators Fellowship, Marie Poulin (@mariepoulin), who runs an online course called Notion Mastery, and Ali Abdaal (@AliAbdaal), who runs Part Time YouTuber Academy. In this episode, we’ll talk about how to get started, overcome imposter syndrome, and how everyone has something to teach.

The Michele's Psychology Episode

Apr 13th — Colleen digs into Michele's feels about writing a book. They also talk about why Michele won't take meetings with potential acquirers.

Building an intentional community with Evil Witches' Claire Zulkey

Apr 12th — Claire Zulkey is a writer, journalist, and creator of the Evil Witches newsletter, a weekly newsletter about the trials and joys of family life. Zulkey covers everything from parenting advice to recommendations for storebought cookies. She launched her newsletter through a private Facebook group of friends and moms who wanted to share candidly about their experiences, and has since launched paid memberships. Here, she shares her strategies for writing and growing her newsletter.

$2k MRR

Apr 8th — This week, we talk about Rick's latest milestone, how to hire a developer, and more.

Creating a LinkedIn Killer with Jeremy Chatelaine

Apr 8th — New social platforms are popping up like flies, but the professional networking niche has become dated. Jeremy Chatelaine of Quickmail.io chats with us about disrupting industry behemoths, when to pivot, and the future of crypto.

Growing a podcast to 50k downloads in 6 months - Danny Miranda, The Danny Miranda Show

Apr 7th — Danny Miranda runs the Danny Miranda Show, a podcast he's rapidly grown to 50k downloads in just 6 months. He's relentless, focused and consistent, publishing 3 episodes a week with some of his favorite authors and entrepreneurs. In this episode we discuss how he's so focused, how he minimises distractions and uses accountability to help him achieve his goals.

#199 – The Future of Teaching with Darrell Silver of Thinkful and Quincy Larson of freeCodeCamp

Apr 7th — One of the best ways to build a successful business as an indie hacker is to teach people a valuable skill. So in this episode, I sat down to talk to you two of the best educators that I know. Darrell Silver (@darrellsilver) is the founder of Thinkful (an online learning service that's helped thousands of students get high paying jobs in tech) and Quincy Larson (@ossia), the founder of freeCodeCamp. We’ll get into some of the best ways for indie hackers to get started as educators and the economics behind an education business.

Good Problems

Apr 6th — Colleen leaves her SaaS alone for a few weeks, and Michele talks about being a founder with ADD.

Look up in the sky! It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a Fun Travel App with Jeremy Parker

Apr 2nd — Airlines are bleeding cash right now. While we don’t exactly feel sorry for them, there’s a huge opportunity to get ahead of the post-Covid travel boom. Jeremy Parker of Swag.com shares a fun business idea that gets people thinking about flying.

Jamming with Dru Riley from Trends.vc

Apr 1st — This is a special episode where Dru and Tyler "jam" on one of the topics for Dru's trends.vc reports.

#198 – How an Indie Hacker Landed Enterprise Customers in Year One with Nadav Keyson of Riverside.fm

Mar 31st — Nadav Keyson and his brother built a podcast recording tool on the bleeding edge of technology. By being hyper-focused and product-driven they were able to score clients like Hillary Clinton and the NFL as first customers. In this episode, I’ll talk to Nadav about how he reached out to big names, turned them into customers, and built a product with innate virality.

Applying the Five Steps to Finding an Audience

Mar 30th — Software Social listener Rossveth Lopez joins the show. Michele and Rossveth workshop her business together, exploring where she decided on an idea and what she's working through.

How to scale your advertising strategy with Letterhead CEO Christopher Sopher

Mar 29th — Christopher Sopher is the co-founder and CEO of Letterhead, a platform that offers business tools for newsletters. Sopher is also the co-founder of Whereby Us, a network of local newsletters in Miami, Seattle, Portland, and Pittsburgh. Whereby Us is profitable and earns over $1.5 million in revenue per year. In this episode, Sopher shares his strategies for developing newsletters, aligning relationships with advertisers to meet the needs of readers, and creating an authentic community through local news.

Deep dive into an execution retreat

Mar 25th — Because Rick is taking some time off for parental leave, we recorded a special episode this week. Rick is about to do a week-long retreat to try to finish a major project before becoming a dad. We're going to spend this episode discussing how he can get the most out of the retreat.

Podcast in a Box for High-End Clients with Sani Abdul-Jabbar

Mar 25th — Podcasting is growing like wildfire yet there are plenty of influential people intimidated by the process of starting a podcast. Sani Abdul-Jabbar shares a business idea to create a podcast in a box service.

Build in a competitive market, or go niche? - Derrick Reimer, SavvyCal

Mar 24th — Derrick Reimer is the founder of SavvyCal, and co-host on the Art of Product podcast. We talk about what it takes to build a product in one of the most competitive markets there is, calendar scheduling, how Derrick has grown the business over the past few months and how his TinySeed funding has helped him scale.

#197 – Inside Zapier's First Acquisition with Ben Tossell of Makerpad

Mar 24th — In just two years, Ben Tossell (@bentossell) grew Makerpad to over 10,000 users, $400,000 ARR and got bought by Zapier in a deal that became Zapier’s first acquisition. In this episode, I’m going to put Ben’s poker face to the test as I dig into the details of the deal and what it’s like for a founder to go through that process for the first time.

Customer Interview Part 2: The Debrief

Mar 23rd — Colleen and Michele talk about last week's customer interview and what Colleen learned from it.

Earlier

Lessons from thousands of newsletter writers with Yaro Bagriy

Mar 22nd — Yaro Bagriy, the founder of Newsletter Crew, shares the lessons he's learned from thousands of conversations with newsletter writers.

How to build a business you actually enjoy - Natalie Nagele, Wildbit

Mar 20th — Natalie Nagele is the co-founder of Wildbit, the company behind Postmark, Beanstalk, People-First Jobs and more. Wildbit has just turned 20 years old, so Natalie knows exactly what it takes to grow and scale successful bootstrapped businesses. In this episode we talk about how to build a business you don't hate, how to find work that fulfils you, and what you can do to find deep work.

Burnout

Mar 18th — This week, we talk about how to identify burnout, and what to do about it.

Cornering Rural Tourism for City Folks with Dominic Monkhouse

Mar 18th — In this era of endless screentime, people are craving a return to nature. Dominic Monkhouse shares a business idea that offers meaningful country living experiences to city folk.

#196 – Turning a Weak Skill into Your Best Asset with David Perell of Write of Passage

Mar 17th — David Perell (@david_perell) is someone whose own friends told him he wasn’t a good writer. By his own account, he was “horrible” at it. In this episode, we talk about why he decided to get really, really good at writing instead of just giving up and what specific techniques made it possible.

$600 MRR and 150 new users per day with SEO and marketing - Elston Baretto, Tiiny Host

Mar 17th — In this episode we have Elston Baretto, who is the founder of Tiiny Host and is probabably in a similar position to most indie hackers - working on his side-project that earns a few hundred dollars MRR, alongside a full time job. We talk about how Elston made $1,000 in a couple of days using lifetime deals, how his SEO strategy has led to over 150 sites a day being created using his product and the tactics used for that.

Customer Interview Part 1: The Interview

Mar 16th — Michele interviews one of Colleen's customers. Next week, Colleen and Michele will debrief on the interview.

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